1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improvements in silos for storing and dispensing particulate material and, more particularly but not by way of limitation, to improvements in road transportable silos for storing and dispensing hot mix asphaltic concrete.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
As has been discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,208, issued May 19, 1981 to Hankins et al., it has been the practice in the road construction industry to prepare hot mix asphaltic concrete at a location near the road upon which it will be used and to dispense the asphaltic concrete into trucks from a silo which is road transported to the location at which the asphaltic concrete is prepared. By this means, transportation costs associated with the movement of the asphaltic concrete from the site at which it is prepared to the site at which it is to be used can be maintained a reduced level that reduces the cost of building roadways. The Hankins et al. patent teaches a road transportable silo that can be used to store and dispense asphaltic concrete prepared by an on-site hot mix asphaltic concrete preparation apparatus to trucks which deliver the asphaltic concrete from such site.
In addition to being road transportable, modern asphaltic concrete storage and dispensation silos are often provided with another characteristic. It has been found that hot mix asphaltic concrete, in common with other materials composed of particles of varying sizes, tends to segregate if dispensed at a steady rate from a conveyor, used to lift the asphaltic concrete to a level above the bins, into a storage bin. The solution to this problem has been to collect the outflow of the conveyor into a slug which is dropped into the storage bin of the silo in the manner taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,520 issued Apr. 15, 1969 to Williams. With the combination of road transportability and slug feeding, hot mix asphaltic concrete storage and dispersion silos have made an important contribution to the road building industry. However, silos have not kept pace with advances in road building technology. Circumstances have arisen in which prior art silos are not well adapted to the needs of the road building industry. The present invention provides a versatile silo that is well adapted to the needs of the users of hot mix asphaltic concrete.